The International House of Mojo

As we approach the one-year anniversary of the best Aprils non-fools schtick in recent memory, we’re seeing some more “lessons learned”-type information making its way to the public. Take producer Jenn Sandercock’s recent GDC talk, The Production Secrets of 'Return to Monkey Island', from which you can download the presentation deck. I haven’t read it myself, but couldn’t help but notice this tidbit while skimming through it.

According to one David Fox, Return’s musicians also held a talk called Thirty Years Later: Scoring 'Return to Monkey Island'. We haven’t gotten our grubby hands or eyes on that one yet—if you can help us track it down, we’ll pay in hugs and love. Not a bad little soundtrack, that.

At least for consoles, that is.

As pointed out by Jn, you can now pick up a boxed version of ReMI for $35.

Let’s be honest, you can never own too many copies of the game. Run to Amazon and buy, buy, buy!

And we’re all privileged enough to witness it:

So he’s making feverish progress on his newest game, interrupted only to hang out with Dom? Ron is living his best life right now.

Ronzo's next game, an RPG we've taken it upon ourselves to code name A Little Something, isn't as far away as we might have guessed:

Are we looking at the first screenshot? And just when can expect to traverse Ron's Hyrule, anyway?

That would be a rather swift turnaround considering Ron shipped a game six months ago. On the other hand, he's been percolating on this one since at least 2018, so maybe I shouldn't be so dubious. The point is, Ron's not done with you, and you're not done with Ron, and we're here to support the addiction.

Touché, Ron. And touché, Marius.

If you’ve struggled to get through the 100 trivia cards in Return to Monkey Island, know that another hill is right ahead of you. 70 new trivia cards have been added to the game, and many of them are, for the lack of a better term, fiendish. And for that, you can blame credit sometimes-Mojo-correspondent Marius, who wrote them all.

When reached for comments, Marius had this to say:

Us being us, we feverously slaved updating our online version of the trivia. Does it all work? I do not know because I don’t know the answers to all of the questions! But this is a great time for you to find out.

Jenn Sandercock, who produced Return to Monkey Island, not to mention Thimbleweed Park before that, will be attending this year's Game Developers Conference in March to give a talk about the production processes that led to the game being recognized among Mixnmojo's most preferred of September 2022:

It's unclear if the presumptive recording to come out of this is something GDC is going to share with the public free of charge - there's a bit of inconsistency in the way they handle that - but it costs nothing to hope.

In his coverage for Limited Run’s upcoming Return to Monkey Island physical release(s), Remi noted the unusual offering of an “upgrade kit,” in which you get an expanded and corrected version of the Anthology box (with the game logos in the correct order, in addition to appending ReMI’s position) along with a smattering of additional trinkets.

Well, Limited Run is workshopping an altogether new comedy sketch with the so-called “Gold Key Bundle.” See, the other quirk of these releases that you may remember was that each of the four individual editions (one per platform), plus the upgrade kit, would respectively include replicas of each of the five keys Guybrush collects in the game’s second half, in a predatory play for the OCD fan who's gotta catch 'em all. A visual reminder of how all that shakes out (note the bottom left of each picture):

For those who have lost their goddamned minds and would actually pursue that, the distributor is helpfully offering a comprehensive bundle of all the above for an even $419.99.

What kind of diseased mind even conceives of this stuff? Anyhoodle: buy away. Bankruptcy ain’t nothing but a number.

I mean, we knew it was gonna happen, right? Return to Monkey Island in a glorious, limited box.

$89; $60 for an anthology “upgrade kit.” What do you get? We’re talking LeChuck’s onboarding pamphlet; a letter from Ron and Dave (presumably the ingame one); the scrapbook; a blowfish stress ball; the Chum lure pin; a platform specific golden key (just so you can buy five copies); a poster; booklet. And what do you know—a soundtrack!

This is what second mortgages are made of.

Sure, only the first and last words of “Best Puzzle Game” properly describe Return to Monkey Island, but any nomination is a worthwhile nomination.

Somewhat more awesome, in my not-so-humble mind, is “Best Performance in a Game,” where Dom received a well-deserved nomination. Says IGN:

Sounds about right to me. The results are set to be delivered on December 12th.

So, let’s see...

Return to Monkey Island is not only available to order from GOG, but it’s also 20% off. Run and buy another copy, right now!

Meanwhile, LRG slams down with the Humongous Classic Collection for Switch. $60 gets you six classic (Footnote: Presumably, I never played them.) kids games and a soundtrack.

Grumpy Gamer has less than grumpily revealed an early ReMI puzzle dependency chart. Spoilers abound, of course, and definitely some cool “what if” revelations in there.

Three updates for the price of one—we’re all about convenience here at Mojo.

Surprising few, Return to Monkey Island took home the Golden Joystick award for “PC Game of the Year”:

What is there to say at this point, really? ReMI has run victory laps since its day of release, and little suggests it will stop anytime soon.

How will it fare when we hand out the coveted Mojo Game of the Year, though? The competition is steep, so time will tell (Footnote: Actually, it’s the only Mojo-related game of 2022, so the odds look to be on its side.).

While Mastodon’s mainstream impact remains a question mark, we’re happy to see that Ron is throwing out some exclusives there. To wit:

Exciting times ahead!

And, if you haven’t already: follow us on the nascent social network!

Look, I don’t know much about the Bilbao International Games Conference, but it warms the heart to see Return of Monkey Island [sic] winning its “Best Art Direction” award.

Goddamn well deserved it is, too. And why not revisit our interview with Rex, the art director behind the game?

Vainamoinen, your patience has paid off: Return to Monkey Island will be released on GOG “soon.”

(That’s literally all I got.)

Xbox Wire—apparently an official Xbox publication—coaxed Dave Grossman into writing what looks suspiciously like a Buzzfeed article: “Eight Things You Should Know Before Playing Return to Monkey Island.” And, if you, like me, had prepared to drop some hardcore anchor facts during your next cocktail party, well . . .

. . . I apparently have a lot of opinions I have to reconsider.

Sometimes, the DIY spirit benefits us all. While waiting for an official OST, BillyCheers said enough is enough and released his own mix of the Return to Monkey Island tracks. You can download them from Google Drive.

Listening through the “Suites” version of the soundtrack—the complete score is also available—I gotta say . . . the three guys did a pretty OK job with the music. It’s almost like they knew what they were doing.

I wouldn’t be against a vinyl version of the OST, so, y’know, if anyone with some clout is reading this . . .

You saw it coming—possibly because you were using the pre-release version—and now it has landed: Quick and Easy’s Dinky Explorer. Meaning, Return to Monkey Island-hacking has arrived at your fingertips. Benzo says:

Getting other people to do the work for you: It’s a page out of Thrik’s playbook. Now go find the secrets hidden within ReMI’s source files.

Apparently, November 8th will be another Return to Monkey Island milestone: Not only will we see the game available for more consoles, it’ll also be available with German voiceovers. Wunderbar! (That’s all I got.)

It might not come as much of a surprise, but Return to Monkey Island is headed to Game Pass next Tuesday, the 8th. That means PC, cloud, and, indeed, Xbox. Hey, it plays great on Switch, so the more console platforms, the merrier. Presumably, PlayStation can’t be far behind.

Update! PS5 confirmed, too.

OK, look, I haven’t watched it yet, but going by her chat with Ron, we can assume her interview with Grossman will be good, too. (And there probably won’t be any grilling.)

(More, maybe, as soon as I’ve watched it.)